Free-Form Aluminum Grid Shell on Bolted Joints, Avenue Mall Shopping Center

In 2015–2023, Parametric Building Systems LLC developed and erected free-form aluminum grid shells using only bolted assemblies. The materials used for all core and node elements are high—strength aluminum EN AW-6063 T5/6, EN AW-6082 T5/6. Beam elements and nodes are connected by high-strength bolts with a special coating without welding. The core elements of the grid shell frame are manufactured at the factory, the nodal elements are individually manufactured on 5-axis CNC machines. The design is carried out using parametric and BIM design tools Rhino3D/Grasshopper/Kangaroo/Karamba3D, which ensures the design of mesh shells at the LOD 500 level of detail. One of the advantages of using aluminum is its low volumetric weight, less than three times that of steel, which makes it possible to install without the use of heavy cranes and other lifting equipment. One example of such projects is the curved aluminum grid shell of the Avenue Mall shopping center. It is a shell of arbitrary shape and has dimensions of 55 m × 50 m, the maximum mark of the roof top from ground level is +25 m. The area of the coating, consisting of a metal frame and glass triangles, is 2750 m2. The average length of the core elements is 2.5 m; the angles between them are as close as possible to the value of 60°.